1/700 Lou Coatney designed Shiratsuyu destroyer

[georgerutherford1861]

Greetings everyone,

This one is slow in the works, not a fault of the model but of my own time available to work on it, etc. Anyway, here is a work in progress picture of one of Lou's Shiratsuyu destroyers, rescaled to 1/700.

Please note I messed up the area behind the bridge structure. The outlined part is supposed to be cut out, and then it extends back at the same height as the bow of the ship, serving as the top of an extension that is a separate piece. Thankfully I printed off some extra pieces, and will just end up cutting this out separately and attaching it that way. I just do not want to lead anyone astray.

Current work includes building the torpedo launchers and gun turrets, which are going together nicely. Hopefully I will get more work completed this weekend.

Doug

[georgerutherford1861]

A little more progress over the weekend. We now have the aft 12.7cm batteries in place. They are mounted on cut-off toothpicks, which then allow them to rotate.

Doug

[Don Boose]

Good work, Doug. Looks like another good Lou Coatney design - simple, but capturing the characteristics of the original.

Don

[georgerutherford1861]

The destroyer is finished. A key part of building this one faster for me was finally finding a glue that seemed to work better as I was getting parts to initially stick to each other. There seem to be quite a few varieties of Aleene's tacky glue, and while I had been using one type before, it's sticking power was sometimes not enough initially to hold pieces together, and my other regular glue seemed to take forever to actually hold pieces together, leaving me sitting there for quite a bit waiting for it to hold itself.

So, the "Fast Grab" type is what I think works best for me for an initial parts hold, and then I follow that up with a "wetter" glue to really solidify the bond when I need it to.

This build was fun, nice detail for the scale and will allow me to build up a fleet. In fact, you can see the Hiei in the background in at least one picture.

I need to work on a few American ships in 1/700 to get some balance to things, then I can come back and build some more. As always, my builds are not fantastic in my own eyes, but I like to let the designers know that I appreciate their hard work and that there are people out there building them. Thanks Lou!

Doug

[georgerutherford1861]

More pictures.

Doug

[georgerutherford1861]

Final pictures

[LouCoatney]

Oh WOW. They're looking ready for Guadalcanal.

LOVE the line ahead shot, Doug.

And you've got her turrets and tubes rotating?

Very glad to see my design('s piece dimensions) still valid at the larger scale.

For 700, I use a length of small paper clip or even a pin to round torpedo tubes. The folds are the only choice at 1200.

I've GOT to get back to finish the Mogamis and the set.

You do BEAUTIFUL work as ever, Doug.

[Don Boose]

Fine work, Doug.

I am catching up with the Forum now that Lil is back home from her six-week siege in the hospital and rehab due to a blood infection.

Among the books I read during the long days with her in confinement was Trent Hone's Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945 []Page not found | U.S. Naval Institute, which analyzes the U.S. Navy way of learning about operations and tactics, and learning how to learn and adapt, between the wars. Good coverage of the South Pacific operations, where the Shiratsuyu's were heavily engaged. I also re-read Hone (and others) American & British Aircraft Carrier Development 1919-1941 []JSTOR: Access Check as part of the research for Garry Gillard's and my next project in our USN and USMC aviation between the wars series.

I look forward to your next project.

Don

[LouCoatney]

Don, you may like my new/latest free/educational print-and-play little microgame Postcard Coral Sea

Shokaku, Zuikaku, and Shoho ... and Yorktown (the Japanese didn't expect, as was the case later at Midway) and Lady Lex are in it ... although the Allies may/50% NOT get Yorktown.


An overlooked battle is Fletcher's October 1942 Eastern Solomons, which he won with Japanese light carrier Ryujo sunk, albeit moderate damage to Enterprise.
Of course, he would be nonetheless relieved for pulling his carriers away from Guadalcanal in early August, forcing Turner to end unloading supplies to the Marines which soon made it Starvation Island.


Guadalcanal historian Richard Frank and others dismiss the battle as not being decisive or strategic, but it certainly was, preventing the Japanese from descending en masse on the island.

[Don Boose]

double post - these are not the droids you are looking for